Cardiovascular disease or heart disease is the number one killer around the world and the associated risk factors are on the increase globally. For example, cardiovascular and metabolic diseases such as diabetes, where there is an anticipated increase of over 40% in the incidence rate around the world by the year 2025, metabolic syndrome, hypertension and dyslipidemia are the leading causes of morbidity and mortality. In addition, recent studies indicate that even hitherto protected subsets such as younger women are becoming increasingly vulnerable to heart disease. The global need for new cardiovascular drugs is therefore, steadily increasing.
Cardiovascular disease secondary to atherosclerosis is not a single disease. There are multiple risk factors associated with the disease. These include diabetes, hypertension, dyslipidemia, smoking, thrombophilia (increased clotting tendency or thrombosis) and positive family history. Often, patients have multiple risk factors and are treated with multiple drugs. While combination therapy has been proven effective, often drug-to-drug interactions, the inconvenience of multiple daily dosing, etc. as well as undiagnosed risk factors, make it necessary to take a multipronged approach.
To date, many of these risk factors have been treated as separate diseases although there are numerous commonalities among them. For example, the drugs against hypertension have little no effect on diabetes and vice versa. Recent studies have suggested that many of these diseases (risk factors) have common features such as an elevated inflammatory and oxidative stress. In addition, altered endothelial function is a common clinically significant observation associated with almost all these risk factors.
The present invention provides for the use of these novel methylenedioxy phenolic compounds and their derivatives in the preparation of a medicament useful to treat, prevent or delay the onset and progression of cardiovascular disease, vascular disease and/or inflammatory disease, as well as Type I and Type II Diabetes and Dyslipidemia patients at risk for hypertension, stroke, cardiovascular and renal disease.
It would be desirable to have one or more drugs that could treat or prevent one or more facets or symptoms of a cardiovascular disease, inflammatory disease, diabetic vascular disease or a related disorder.